A football kicked over a fence in Scotland is found over 1,000 miles away in Norway.

When a player from Banks O’ Dee Football Club kicked a ball over the fence into the River Dee during one of their league matches, it was thought to be lost forever.

The team’s management was therefore stunned to receive an email from Jonny Mikalsen, a resident of the small Norwegian island of Vanna, who found the ball with the team’s name written on it on the island’s coastline.

“Hi! You properly have one of the best long distance kickers in the world,” he joked in his message to the club. “It [the ball] has travelled quite a distance. We are located 1,800km (1,118 miles) north of Aberdeen, on an island called Vanna.”

What is more, the football, despite its epic journey through the icy waters of the North Sea, is still in a usable condition.

Tom Ewan, Banks O’ Dee club secretary, said that he was delighted to be reunited with the ball. “It’s the Norse saga of the long distance football,” he said.